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Thursday, 6 October 2011

Girl Effect Blogging Campaign

It is like a thin thread woven into a piece of fabric – the way
a certain issue keeps on reappearing in one’s life.You never consciously look for it, but the next
thing you know, there it is again...

This thing keeps
on appearing in my life, always on the edge, never really intruding into my
daily comings-and-goings, and oh so easy to ignore, to put it off as ‘not
really my problem’ and ‘I’m too busy to get involved’.

It has crossed my path again yesterday, and all it asked
from me is to write about it. Surely I can do that. It is what I do, after
all.So this is my small contribution:

Today, more than 600 million girls
live in the developing world. Approximately one-quarter of these girls are not
in school.

Adolescent girls are uniquely capable
of raising the standard of living in the developing world.It has been shown:she will reinvest her income and knowledge
back into her family and her community.As an educated mother, an active citizen, an ambitious entrepreneur or
prepared employee, a girl will break the cycle of intergenerational poverty.

That is the Girl Effect.

Yet, despite her proven potential, she
is more likely to be uneducated, a child bride, and exposed to HIV/AIDS. Less than two cents of every international
development dollar is directed at her.

A few years ago it came into my heart to visit
Afghanistan.I had just read the book The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini and I
told my husband that if I ever get the chance to visit Afghanistan, I am going
to grab it with both hands.Not long
afterwards a friend told me about an outreach programme inviting people to
visit Afghanistan to witness their projects first hand. And off I went. I visited
Kabul, travelled by road to Mazar I Sharif and further north to the border with Tajikistan. I saw schools being built, children being educated and women
being trained in entrepreneurship. It was an eye opener.

Since then everything about Central Asia caught my
interest.I read Greg Mortenson’s books Three Cups of Tea and Stones into Schools.Through his organization Central Asia Institute
(CAI), he has built many schools in Pakistan and Afghanistan.He is passionate about providing education
for all children but especially girls. Here is an extract from his last book
explaining how educating girls can transform a society:

Income
growth:

Girls’
education leads to increased income for the girls themselves and for nations as
a whole.Increasing the share of women
with a secondary education by 1 percent boosts annual per-capita income growth
by 0.3 percent.That’s significant,
since per-capita income gains in developing countries seldom exceed 3 percent
per year.Educating girls also boosts
farming productivity.Educated farmers
are more efficient and their farms are more productive, which leads to increase
crop yields and declines in malnutrition.

Maternal and
Children’s Health:

Educated
women have smaller, healthier and better-educated families.The better educated the women in society, the
lower the fertility rate. A 2000 study in Brazil found that literate women had
an average of 2.5 children while illiterate women had and average of six
children.The better educated the women,
the lower the infant mortality rate.“The
mother’s education is often the single most important influence on children’s
survival...Educated mothers learn how to keep their children healthy and how to
use health services, improve nutrition and sanitation, and take advantage of
their own increased earning capability.Girls
who stay in school also marry later, when they are better able to bear and care
for children.” By increasing health-care knowledge and reducing the number of
pregnancies, female education significantly reduces the risk of maternal
mortality.Educated women are more
likely to insist on education for their own children, especially their
daughters. Their children study as much as two hours more each day than
children of illiterate mothers and stay in school longer.

Women
Empowerment:

Educated
girls and women are more likely to stand up for themselves and resist violence.
“In poor areas where women are isolated within their communities, have little
education and cannot earn much, girls are often regarded as an economic burden
and women and girls sometimes suffer deliberate neglect or outright harm.”Educated women channel more of their
resources to the health and education of their children than men do.Educated women are more likely to participate
in political discussions, meetings and decision making.Studies show that education promotes more
representative, effective government.As
women are educated and approach parity withmen, research shows that “governments and other institutions function
better and with less corruption.”Girls
who become literate tend to teach their mothers how to read and write, much
more than do males.

Closer to home, in 2007, the ruler of Dubai, Sheikh Mohammed
Bin Rashid Al Maktoum, launched a fundraising campaign called Dubai Cares.It is based on the belief that education is the most effective tool to
break the cycle of poverty. Dubai Cares is an organization dedicated to improving
children’s access to quality primary education in developing countries. Dubai
Cares works in countries with chronic deficiencies in primary education where
it implements development programs that target the underlying causes preventing
children from accessing quality primary education. Dubai Cares’ vision is
a world in which all children can go to school.

Both these
initiatives (CAI and Dubai Cares) were launched by men. Men with a vision for a
better world.A world where women count
and are respected as equal members of society. It is ironic that both these initiatives
were born in the part of the world where girls and women in general, are
perceived as second rate citizens.And
where men are perceived as (and in many cases are) the oppressors.

I’ve known
about the Girl Effect movement for a while now.I ‘liked’ them on Facebook and get their updates on my wall every now
and again.I am inspired by these girls
who fight the odds to improve their own lives and then go back to help those
around them. And then I forget about it again and I carry on with my own busy
life...

Yesterday I
came across the blog of Tara Sophia Mohr called Wise Living. I don’t know how I
got there – I’ve never read heard of her or read her blog before... She started a 2011 Girl Effect BloggingCampaign. And there it was – an invitation
to get involved. And here I am – getting
involved. Please join me. If you blog, join the blogging campaign. If you have a Facebook profile, post about
the Girl Effect on your wall. Look at
their website, they have great ideas for everybody to get involved, spread the
word and help a girl. Or two.

About Me

Other places to find me:

AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN

AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN

During August and September 2012 I 'planted' 25 African Flowers across South Africa, creating an AFRICAN FLOWER CHAIN. For about a year after that I received messages and photos from these flowers, which I have added to the blog over time. The flowers have now faded and withered away - as is natural for flowers to do, but the memories are still alive. Follow the link in the top menu or in the catagories to read all the stories. If you have seen any of them and still want to send your story - please do so at africanflowerchain@gmail.com